December saw the annual gathering of the Fall Meeting of the American Geological Union in San Francisco; the release of Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds from the Director on National Intelligence office of the United States of America.

We begin 2011 with interesting new challenges in the climate debate pertaining to the willingness to address mitigation and adaptation at a policy level. In the US a larger proportion of Republicans in the legislature along with key Republican members having indicated their intentions to pull back progress in climate change regulation by repealing EPA regulation of carbon dioxide and continued attacks on science and scientists.

Energy and Power Subcommittee to Examine Climate Science and EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Regulations; Into ignorance 'the US Congress has entered the intellectual wilderness'; President Obama's 'Shock and Trance' speech on energy security